ATHENS — All season, most of the talk has been what’s wrong with Carson Beck. As the No. 7-ranked Georgia Bulldogs prepare for a fourth consecutive trip to the SEC Championship game, perhaps it’s time to focus on what’s right with him.
Such discussion would need to start with the art of the finishing strong. A fifth-year senior quarterback from Jacksonville, Florida, Beck will go down as one of Georgia’s best of all time when it comes to closing ballgames.
Everybody saw that yet again Friday as the Bulldogs rallied from a 17-0 first-half deficit for a 44-42 win over archrival Georgia Tech that took eight overtimes to complete. With that rather arduous victory, the Bulldogs improved to 23-3 with Beck as their starting quarterback.
In more than few of those conquests ― especially this season — Georgia doesn’t land the ‘W’ if Beck doesn’t play lights out down the stretch.
Turns out, crunch time is Beck’s favorite time.
“When you get to the fourth quarter and you’re down and you’ve got to have it, you make it happen,” Beck said Monday as the Bulldogs began preparations for Saturday’s date with Texas in the SEC Championship game (4 p.m., ABC). “In pressure moments and pressure situations, I’ve been in those my entire life. It really doesn’t feel like pressure because that’s what I love to do.”
Against Tech, Beck made all the plays required for the Bulldogs to wipe out 14-point shortfall in the final 3:39 of regulation and force overtime. Beck also was pivotal for putting them in that position beforehand.
In the fourth quarter, Beck was 12-of-17 passing for 124 yards and two touchdowns with another 15 yards on five rushes. In the first two four-down periods of overtime, Beck was 3-for-3 for 45 yards with a pair of touchdowns.
A closer look reveals such a finish is not a fluke for Georgia’s 6-foot-4, 220-pound signal-caller. In the second half games this season, Beck is completing a higher percentage of passes (66 to 64.3) for more yards (1,774 to 1,655), more touchdowns (16 to 12) and fewer interceptions (5 to 7). As a result, his quarterback rating is considerably higher in second halves (164.86) compared to firsts (132.62).
Similarly, Beck’s numbers get better from the third quarter (157.16 rating) to the fourth quarter (164.20). There are a multitude of factors that play into that, but the primary takeaway has to be focus and determination.
Coach Kirby Smart said the Bulldogs first saw that trait in Beck in high school.
“Going back to the playoff run he made at Mandarin when he led them to a state championship, which I think was his junior year,” Smart said Monday. “He played well in those games, and he’s played well to finish at the end of our games as well. So, I mean, he’s a clutch guy.”
That’s well and good, but the converse to that has been the many slow starts that have plagued Georgia’s offense this season and, less often, last. When the Bulldogs found themselves down to Tech 17-0 at halftime, it represented the sixth time this season Georgia has scored a touchdown or less in the opening two quarters.
Remarkably, the Bulldogs lost only to Alabama and Ole Miss amid those circumstances. They actually came all the way back to take the lead late in the fourth quarter against the Crimson Tide, which had jumped ahead 28-0 in the first half. Alas, Bama grabbed the right back in the final two minutes of a 41-34 shootout.
“I don’t separate it,” Smart said of Beck’s disparate halves of play. “I just look at what he does on the whole. Does he make the right decision? Does he make the right read? And that’s not separated by halves or quarters. … You can make a case that we have not started fast and well. Is that Carson Beck’s fault? I can’t sit here and say that’s Carson Beck’s fault.”
For the year, Beck has passed for 3,429 yards with a 65.1% completion rate with 28 TDs and 12 interceptions. Though solid by any measure, that’s not on par with others’ expectations for Beck, nor his own.
A year ago, Beck had more yards (3,941) and fewer interceptions (6). The Bulldogs also had fewer losses, with their only one coming to Alabama, 27-24 in the 2023 SEC Championship game.
Beck didn’t play particularly badly in either half that contest. He finished with 243 yards on 21 of 29 passing and did not have an interception. But neither did he have a touchdown pass. And Beck and Dillon Bell combined to commit a devastating fumble via a bobbled exchange on an ill-fated reverse. The resulting three-point defeat — the Bulldogs’ only one of the entire 2023 campaign — is what knocked them out of the College Football Playoff. Georgia would take their frustrations out on Florida State in the Orange Bowl with a 63-3 shellacking.
Getting back into the conference championship game this year is what has Beck beaming from ear-to-ear this week. While he’s had deal with more adversity than seemingly anybody — the most dropped passes in FBS, dismissed receivers, injured running backs and offensive linemen — Beck knows he is in position to do what he set out to do with his decision last January to return for a fifth college season.
That is, to win an SEC title and compete for the national championship. Both goals suddenly are at hand.
“Here we are with everything that we want in front of us,” Beck said from a lectern in a team meeting room at the Butts-Mehre football complex Monday. “I know the guys are excited. I’m excited. And even though it hasn’t gone exactly how we want it to, we’re exactly where we want to be. So, we’re just really excited for this opportunity and the rest of the season.”
Beck didn’t exactly light it up the last time the Bulldogs met Texas. That was the second of three three-interception games he has had this season. He was unable to muster a touchdown throw or run for one either. But what Beck was able to do was lead Georgia to victory.
The No. 1-ranked Longhorns drew to within one score, 23-15, late in the third quarter. With Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium rocking in boisterous protest, the Bulldogs’ offense made like a python with Beck at the controls and squeezed the life out of the Longhorns’ hopes for a comeback. Beck led an 11-play, 89-yard touchdown drive that spanned the third and fourth quarters.
The possession included: A 21-yard completion from Beck to Arian Smith on third-and-10 from the Georgia 11; a 43-yard pass to Oscar Delp to get the Bulldogs into Texas territory; a 5-yard run by Beck down to Longhorns’ 1; and, finally, a handoff to Trevor Etienne for a touchdown that would quieten thunderous throng once and for all.
Beck’s name wasn’t in the scoring column, but his fingerprints were all over every yard of the game’s most meaningful possession. And that’s just the way Beck likes it.
“When those moments come, you either do it or you don’t,” Beck said, deflecting personal credit. “As a team and as an offense, we’ve really excelled in those moments. You try not to get into those moments, but we have been in those moments this year and we’ve been able to execute when we’ve had to.”
The Bulldogs are hopeful Beck can deliver one more time. A win Saturday comes with a first-round bye in the playoffs. Georgia’s next stop would be in an old, familiar place — the Caesars Superdome and the Sugar Bowl.
“I think the team is in really good spirits,” Beck said. “We’re really excited to have this opportunity.”
About the Author
